KYIV - Ukrainian forces have managed to blunt Russia’s offensive in and around the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, where the situation is stabilising, commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhniy said on Saturday.

Separately, Britain’s Defence Ministry said the months-long Russian assault on the city had stalled, mainly as a result of heavy troop losses.

Bakhmut is a major target for Russia as it attempts to fully capture Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region.

At one point, Russian commanders expressed confidence that the city would fall soon, but such claims have tailed off amid heavy fighting.

“The Bakhmut direction is the most difficult. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the defence forces, the situation is being stabilised,” General Zaluzhniy said in a post on Telegram after a conversation with his British counterpart, Admiral Tony Radakin.

Russian attacks in and around Bakhmut have dropped to fewer than 20 a day compared with 30 or more in recent days, the Novoe Vremia online news outlet cited Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty as saying.

Pro-Moscow forces are also attacking positions farther south in Avdiivka on the outskirts of the Russian-held city of Donetsk, as well as farther north, in Svatove.

The British Defence Ministry, in a daily update, said Russia most likely wanted to stabilise its front line and would adopt a more defensive operational stance.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Facebook post that Russian attacks in and around Avdiivka had been repelled on Saturday, but gave few details. REUTERS